Delta Air’s Fleet-Service Workers Turn Down Union

Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines baggage and cargo handlers rejected an organizing drive by their industry’s largest union in a victory for the carrier’s efforts to keep its workforce mostly nonunion.

The vote was 5,569 workers against representation and 5,024 in favor, Atlanta-based Delta, which acquired Northwest in 2008, said in an e-mailed statement today. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said it was investigating claims that Delta illegally interfered in voting.